Exodus 19.2-8; Romans 5.1-8; Matthew 9.35-10.8
“You shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.”
That line from today’s first reading in the 19th chapter of Exodus comes at a pivotal time in the history of God’s people in the Old Testament. The Israelites have just arrived at Mount Sinai after their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. For centuries, God’s own people endured oppression, forced labor, harsh treatment. In their suffering, God promises to act. At the beginning of the book of Exodus, God says to Moses, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt…I am well aware of their suffering. I have come down to rescue them from the clutches of the Egyptians.” You recall what happens next: Pharaoh was confronted by God through Moses; plagues struck Egypt; Israel was led through the Red Sea toward freedom, covenant, and new life as God’s own people. “I bore you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself.”
That is where today’s reading begins. The Israelites are given a status that they could hardly have imagined or grasped when they suffered under Pharaoh’s domination, when they were vulnerable and powerless, crying out to God for deliverance and hope. It is an Old Testament picture of grace. And from that grace, new life begins. God’s message through Moses to the Israelites is not, ‘Congratulations, you have arrived.’ Instead, God says, “You shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.” New life is the beginning of a new calling. The privilege they receive through grace becomes their purpose to live as people of grace.
To be a ‘priestly kingdom’ is, to use an image from Tom Wright, to be set up in the world like an angled mirror reflecting God’s purposes and desires out to the world and, at the same time, reflecting the world’s worship, needs, and concerns back to God. To be a ‘holy nation’ means being dedicated to God for a special purpose—living with our neighbors, and everyone around us, in a way shaped by God’s faithfulness, our imaginations guided by God, and our words and deeds showing the world a different way to live.
For the Israelites, the privilege they received and the purpose of the lives meant, for example, that farmers during the harvest were supposed to leave a portion of the crop unharvested so that the poor would have something to eat; instead of accumulating as much as possible for oneself, being a holy nation meant generosity toward others, sharing what God provided: an alternative to greed.
For the people of God in the Old Testament, being a holy nation meant welcoming strangers and caring for foreigners with compassion, dignity, and fairness. They were to remember their own experience as foreigners in Egypt and so, in turn, welcome strangers with compassion, dignity, and justice: an alternative to fear, exclusion, or exploitation.
To be a priestly kingdom and a holy nation is to embody God’s character in simple tasks with honesty and fairness as a witness that reflects the life of God into the world. The privilege of being God’s own people shapes the purpose of living as God’s people in thought, word, and deed in service to serve God and others.
This is the ongoing task of faith. And it can be a challenge not to forget that calling. How easy, for example, to delight in the love and grace of God for me ‘just as I am’ without asking how God might want me to change, and be changed, to better reflect be what God wants me to be? How easy to have a grateful heart for God’s blessings in life yet find the call to be a blessing to others an inconvenience that requires sacrifice? (People can be so demanding.) How easy to welcome the privileges of life in God but often forget their purpose.
A couple of weeks ago, a political debate among our allies across the pond caught my attention. One of the members of the British Parliament was frustrated that the Prime Minister seemed to be treating the office to which he had been elected as if it being elected was an end in itself: that being chosen was the achievement, no different than winning a talent competition like The Voice or America’s Got Talent; an accomplishment to celebrate as though that meant the work was done. But as the member of parliament pointed out, “The work doesn’t end when you get the job, that’s when it starts.”
Whatever your politics might be, you understand that truth. Whether it’s public office, a promotion at work, or something as personal as marriage, parenting, or friendship, a new title or status is not the end of the story, not a case of, ‘Congratulations, you have arrived.’ Instead, it is the beginning of a new calling: a commitment to care for, and carry out, what has been entrusted to you—privilege received giving purpose in how to live.
“You shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.” That statement expresses the mission, task, and purpose of the Israelites as God’s chosen people. And also for us as followers of Jesus. The New Testament letter of 1st Peter takes this biblical call to reflect God’s character and applies it to all Christians. “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” The privilege given through grace shapes our purpose to live as people of grace.
That is what we see in today’s gospel. The disciples have had the privilege of following Jesus, of listening to his teaching; they have witnessed his forgiving and healing ministry. Now Jesus is calling them, as God once called the Israelites, not simply to enjoy a new status of being chosen by God. Now they are being called to serve God and others, to extend Jesus’ ministry, to be a real presence, in small measure, of who Jesus has been. “Go proclaim the good news… Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.”
The remarkable thing in both the story of the Israelites in Exodus, and the disciples in today’s gospel, is that God’s privilege and purpose are at work through ordinary people. God looks at a community of suffering, oppressed, heartbroken people in Exodus and says, “You shall be for me a priestly kingdom and a holy nation.” The Son of God looks at twelve fallible followers in the gospel—fishermen, tax collectors, and laborers—and entrusts them with the work of the kingdom.
And for us? In today’s reading from Romans, St Paul says that “while we were sinners, Christ died for us.” Our participation in the life of God received through grace becomes our purpose to live as people of grace. Later in Romans Paul gives guidance on what this life of grace looks like as we are set up as an angled mirror reflecting the life of God. “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.” (With just that, the 24-hour news cycle and much of social media goes out of business!) “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly…Do not repay anyone evil for evil.” This is what being people of grace looks like. Our words and deeds reflect a different way to live. Later Paul adds, “Let us, then, pursue the things that make for peace and build up our common life.” This is what it means to be a priestly kingdom and a holy nation, for the Israelites, the disciples, and for us.
The hymn writer Fred Pratt Green puts this life on our lips when he has us sing, “The church of Christ in ev’ry age, beset by change but Spirit-led, must claim and test its heritage and keep on rising from the dead.” The church of Christ in every age—including our age now beset by anxiety, fear, and exploitation—is called to live a different way. Green again, “We have no mission but to serve in full obedience to our Lord; to care for all, without reserve, and spread his liberating word.” Our life, individually and together in and through this cathedral congregation, is caught up in something larger than personal success, comfort, or achievement. We are meant to be a witness that a different way of living is possible, and that the privilege we receive through grace is not the end but the beginning of our purpose to live as people of grace; to be, in small measure, a reflection of the life and truth of God.
For “you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
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